Is this the same David Davis who was on the radio last week claiming that the government should build a limitless number of new prisons (obviously, it isn’t the same David Davies who said much the same thing on the radio yesterday)?

Why has he taken so long to make up his mind?

If you were to write an article defending civil liberties, would you write admiringly a swivel eyed loon like the Archbishop of York, who has dedicated himself to fighting the very secular liberal democracy on which they are founded?

The problem with this article is not what it says, but the fact that it does match up with the person apparently saying it. As with the Tories’ newfound posturing on ID cards, David Davis has never opposed this before in principle, merely on detail. It doesn’t convince, and having read some of the liberal-sounding pronouncements of Messrs Blair & co before 1997, people would do well to subject Cameron’s little gang with a bit more scepticism.

I ask because, having walked out on the SDP 19 years ago to form his own, ultimately Tory supporting sub-faction that proved less popular than the Monster Raving Loony Party, of all the people in the world less in a position to dole out advice on party matters, it is David Bloody Dr Death Owen.

Nobody asks Ron Davies for his opinion on who should be leader of the Labour Party – and if he made such a pronouncement it wouldn’t exactly be news. So why this loser?